Asheh Reshteh ~ Persian Noodle Soup

Asheh Reshteh ~ Persian Noodle Soup

Asheh Reshteh is a delicious hearty soup that is part of the Norouz menu. Reshteh in Farsi means noodles. This soup is made with Persian noodles which are flat, similar to fettuccine, but slightly less wide. The noodles in this soup symbolize good fortune and success in the path ahead.

Just like any other Persian Ash, it is best when this soup is allowed to rest before it is consumed. It is perfectly OK to make it the day before or give it at least a couple of hours of rest before it is served so that the flavors better come together.

Some opt to use canned chickpeas and red beans for this soup. I have done this before to save time. However, I have discovered that cooking the beans from scratch makes a huge difference taste wise.

Asheh Reshteh is always a winner for the vegetarians and vegans that attend our Norouz gathering. Of course, the latter group will have the soup without the whey!

Sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add chickpeas, red beans, and turmeric. Sauté for a few minutes together.

Add 8 cups of water. Season with salt, cover and cook for one hour.

In the mean time rough chop all the herbs.

Add lentils and herbs to pot. Cover and cook for another 1/2 hour on low. Stir the pot every so often during the cooking process.

Break off reshteh into three sections and add to the pot.

Add spinach. You will need to add half of it first and allow for the first batch to wilt, then add a second batch. Cook covered for another 1/2 hour. Make sure to stir the pot every so often.

Place flour in a small bowl. Take 3 tablespoons of the liquid from the soup and add to the flour.

Mix well until there are no lumps. When adding flour to soups it is always a good idea to use this technique to ensure that there are no lumps in the soup.

Add water and flour to the soup. Adjust seasoning by adding salt. Cook for 1/2 hour longer on low. At this point your soup is ready as the beans should be cooked. You can further cook the soup to deepen the flavors, however, it must be on very low temperature, since this soup is very thick, chances are the bottom will stick.

For the garnish fry onions in oil. I have found that vegetable oil works best and the chances of burning the onions is much less. Once the onion turns translucent, lower the heat and allow for the onions to slowly caramelize.

Once they have tuned into a golden color add dry mint and allow for the onions to crisp up. This takes about an hour from start to finish. It is best to prepare the garnish while cooking the soup.

Place soup in a bowl, add a pinch of fried onion to the center along with a dollop of kashk.

I’m excited to try this recipe and I even ran it by my dad (who never shares his own recipes) and he said it sounds like a good one!
Quick question though, if I were to use dried kidney beans but canned chickpeas, when would you suggest I add the chickpeas? With the kidney beans? With the lentils? Even later?

April 3, 2013

My Persian Kitchen

Nilou, I would add canned beans them about an hour before the soup is done.

April 5, 2013

S

I want to make this but I have a question – What kind of lentils do you use?
Also is it ok to use any noodles?
Thank you!

April 5, 2013

My Persian Kitchen

S., I usually use brown lentils. If you don’t have reshteh you can use fettucine.

April 6, 2013

Yasaman

Hi
I love your website and made the Adas polo last night ,came out pretty good
Making ash reshte now and was wondering how many people is this for ?! It would also be helpful of you add that to all other receipts and mention do you cook things in low medium or high heat pretty pleaseaeee:)
Love your website
Thanks a lot

April 16, 2013

Doriane

I doubled the recipe and it came out DELICIOUS. Everyone was so impressed with my ash!!! Thank you so much. I am going to make the Ash Mast next week! And I am sure it’ll be as wonderful!

April 28, 2013

AH

Hi,

Awesome recipe! I was wondering what you think about using yellow or orange lentils (moong and masoor in Urdu) instead of the brown ones?

April 29, 2013

My Persian Kitchen

AH, I assume that you can use them if you want.

June 23, 2013

Faye

I have made this recipe several times, using freshly picked organic warrigal greens (a type of Australian native spinach -I live in Australia), corriander (cilantro), parsley, mint and chives from my garden. I have left out the noodles from time to time and still enjoy it. This is a fabulous recipe. Thank you!

June 24, 2013

Venuse

Hi,
I had a question: are there any other varieties of asheh reshteh that people eat in iran since my husband and I went to a persian restaurant and we had asheh reshteh that was creamy and white. I felt they put yogurt or heavy cream in it. It was Almost like Alfredo sauce asheh reshteh. My husband loved it that way. I have never made asheh reshteh for him before our restaurant outing and when I made your version he said this not the asheh reshteh we had. He defiantly loves this authentic version, but loves the other version more. Can you give me more insight about making the creamy white version of asheh reshteh. Thank you loads.

Venues

July 17, 2013

My Persian Kitchen

Venuse, recipes will vary from family to family depending on the taste of the cook and her/his family. If the soup looks white, then that has to do with the amount of Kashk that is added. The more you add the lighter the color.

What a wonderful website I found!
Thank you so much for a great site and an easy Ash reshteh recipe. Your site is my new cook book. Love your site.

Parastoo.

January 8, 2014

Aydin

thanks alot for the recipe for ash. never could get my mom to teach me. now i can suprize her without her knowing
a splendid site maam, yet again thanks

March 6, 2014

Bea W

I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I post this recipe to my pinterest board?

March 10, 2014

My Persian Kitchen

Bea, not at all as long as credit is given to My Persian Kitchen!

April 3, 2014

Warren

When you say ‘sauté the onions/garlic’ – do you sauté them in olive oil or something else?

April 3, 2014

Warren

Also, is this good pureed? I maybe didn’t do enough de-stemming of the herbs, so I might want to.

April 18, 2014

andy

This is an amazing recipe, thanks so much for sharing. I made this tonight and it is incredibly delicious, the best asheh resteh recipe i’ve tried to date.
I just want to point out that while i don’t know about other brands, Sadaaf’s reshteh noodles (the only brand available in my area) contain eggs, and so would not be suitable for strict vegans.
Dry, boxed fettuccine such as Barilla brand could be used as a vegan alternative; however, the texture of fettuccine and other Italian-style pasta is very different to reshteh in that it is much firmer and heavier. It would not affect the flavor of the dish much but the soft, light reshteh noodles are rather nice as a textural element.
Much agreed about the dried beans vs. canned.

April 25, 2014

My Persian Kitchen

Warren, you can saute in olive oil or vegetable oil. I would not puree this soup.

May 27, 2014

Myles Hoenig

Hi,
I’m preparing to make this but not sure what kind of noodles to get and if there are any substitute noodles I can use if what you recommend is not available?
thanks,
Myles H

May 31, 2014

My Persian Kitchen

Myles, you can substitute with linguini or spaghetti.

October 9, 2014

D. Destiny

D. Destiny

I do echo everyone who said this is a great/amazing recipe and website. My husband and I had asheh resteh the first time at an Iranian friend’s house and it was amazing. I came home, went on line, found your recipe and now I got my girls hooked on it. To me it is not a soup, but a whole meal and a nutritious one, I may add.

And oh – it doesn’t change the taste (for me) but really helps reduce the gas, I cut up fresh carrots (organic better) and cook it with the beans.

Love you “My Persian Kitchen”

October 21, 2014

Sarah Alhamad

Excellent recipe. hearty and warming. Made it while I was suffering from a bad cold and it’s the only thing i could eat. Many thanks for sharing. Merci!

October 24, 2014

natie

Hi i am going to make i have all the ingredients apart from fresh parsly is this REALLY needed or can i get away with it thanks

December 15, 2014

Layla

I learned to cook Persian food from my grandmother. I used to always be able to call her and say, “Grandma, I’m cooking this. Does it have cilantro AND parsley or just one of them.” She passed this year and my memory is not what it used to be.

I only make Ash about once a year. And I had some wonderful fresh cranberry beans I had cooked earlier this year and frozen, with pias and seer dagh (how do you spell that) as a base for Ash and I pulled it out yesterday. But I couldn’t for the life of me remember whether I needed both cilantro and parsley or just one of them. So I googled it, and your website (which has also helped me in the past) popped up with this recipe.

Your recipe is a great base from which to learn or, in my case, to remind. Thank you. Your recipes and step by step directions and pictures make it all so easy. And as you said, each family has variations.

I love beets and beet greens in my Ash. And in recent years I’ve been adding some baby kale and sometimes chard (although not chard if I use beet greens) in with the spinach (works perfectly). I also use chicken broth instead of water and neither my husband or I can eat lentils, so I leave them out.

So right now my Ash is cooking and I can’t wait to have some later tonight (have to go buy some kask, my dried stuff from Iran is all gone).

January 4, 2015

Tom Phillips

I found this soup at Mission Ranch Market in Mission Viejo, Ca. It comes in pint size containers and is refrigerated. I am a soup lover and was amazed how delicious it is. I am used to meat broth based soup. But this was amazing.

January 7, 2015

Atossa

I live with my bf and he iranian. Today i went to market to get fresh veg to make that soup tom. So far he love my cooking. I learn how to cook persian food from your website..thank you so much..

February 6, 2015

Alireza

Are you sure you can leave the onion for garnishing for 1 hours on heat?
Once the onions are crisped you turn off the heat and add dry mint. If you keep the heat on, it will burn in a moments. The garnish also has minced garlic which has to be added 1 min before you turn the heat off. Also, a very popular garnish is using gheymeh on top of crispy onion-garlic- mint.

February 22, 2015

Kat M

I am Caucasion, but everyone at work is Persian. One of the women brings this dish occassionally and it’s my FAVORITE. She brought it for my birthday one year. So instead of bringing the traditional white cake with fruit and whipped cream, I wanted to make this soup for another co-worker’s birthday. I am really proud of the results – came out looking just like the kind the Persian lady from work brings. Was worth the the slaving away this dish requires. haha I’m lucky that I live so close to a Persian market. I also made some date and cardamom cookies. Yum! Thank you so much for posting this recipe.

February 26, 2015

My Persian Kitchen

Kat, you are simply awesome!!!

April 5, 2015

Sarah

Ash is cooking for sizdeh bedar outing! We are always jealous of the one family that has hot ash at sizdeh bedar and we have cold sandwiches. This year we will be THAT family! Fingers crossed it comes out as good as recipe looks!! Married to Iranian man for 21 years!
nooshe joon everyone!❤️

May 14, 2015

Michel

Hello,

We just read an Iranian book for my book group so I wanted to try this recipe to serve to my group. Can you say how many people this recipe serves?
Thanks! I’m looking forward to making it.
Michel

May 25, 2015

My Persian Kitchen

Michel, I’d say 6 servings.

June 14, 2015

bre

I had a Persian cookbook that I lost in a house fire. This recipe is almost identical. Sadly,I had written in my own tweaks in the margin of the book. 2 of my 4 children asked for it this week. My adult daughter came over for dinner super excited! I’ve made this gluten free but I keep the noodles separate. It is a soup that is slightly different every time, but loved! I’m going to keep using record from my Persian kitchen. Thank you for providing this site!

June 21, 2015

Shiva

How many people does this recipe serve?

June 29, 2015

My Persian Kitchen

Shiva, 6 to 8 people.

November 5, 2015

Arleen

I went to a Persian restaurant just recently and had the soup. I fall in love with it. Went home and used google to find, then found it, and the first website was yours. I made the soup today, and it turned out AMAZING couldn’t have had it any other way. I didn’t know know that you used brown lentils til after i made with the orange lentils but it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.

About My Persian Kitchen

Sanam Lamborn, aka The Chef, was born in Iran and currently lives in Los Angeles. Sanam has always enjoyed cooking and she first practiced her cooking skills in her grandmother’s kitchen, who was indeed her inspiration.